This past week has been a whirlwind of so many new and exciting things! The film festival has been incredible…I’ve seen some great films and some that I’m still unsure about. Right now, my life basically consists of waking up, taking the train into Cannes, going into dark theatres (with EXTREMELY comfortable seats) in the Palais and losing myself in movies all day. At night, I hold a sign asking for extra tickets to the red carpet premieres and so far I’m 2 for 2 :).

The festival kicked off on Monday night with Robin Hood in the Lumiere – the largest theatre in the Palais. I was standing there holding my “Invitation pour ROBIN HOOD si vous plait!” sign and had almost given up hope of getting a ticket when a random French man asked me if I wanted to be his date to the premeire. I know what you’re thinking…that sounds sketchy. Don’t worry -- that’s just the way things are here!

I walked with him to the red carpet and almost had a heart attack. Techno music was blaring over the loud speakers as a sea of paparazzi flashed pictures of all the celebrities we were about to walk past. My ankles felt wobbly and I was just concentrating the whole time on not falling on my face on the red carpet. When we finally got to the top of the stairs, I turned around and looked at all of the glitz and glamour going on behind me… I had more butterflies in my stomach than I can remember having in a long time. After we got to our seats in the balcony, I ditched the French dude and found my friends. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett walked in the theatre with the rest of the cast and directors and everyone stood for a long applause. It was surreal to be in the same theatre as such huge celebrities.

The movie itself was pretty good…not great. I thought Cate Blanchett did a fantastic job with her role though. After the movie, we all got on a train to come back to Juan les Pins and ended up in Antibes. It was pretty miserable walking back to Juan, but the whole night was so amazing that I couldn’t be too upset.

Tonight’s premier was Wall Street (with Shia Labeouf, Carey Mulligan and Michael Doulglass.) I really liked it! It probably had more to do with Shia than anything… I just love him. I would definitely recommend seeing it when it comes to the states.

I absolutely LOVE the people on the study abroad with me…I feel like I’ve known them a lot longer than just a week! We’ve had fun going out to the pier at night and drinking cheap wine. The people at the front desk have threatened to call the cops on us twice now, or at least that’s what we think they were saying. We’ll see if they’re serious.

FOOD IS AMAZING HERE!!! I could write a whole separate blog entry about the bread and cheese alone. More on that later! I should get to sleep… big day of more movies tomorrow!!!